


Time Gain

by dragonsofmyheart



Category: The X-Files
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-12 22:55:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14737365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsofmyheart/pseuds/dragonsofmyheart





	1. Chapter 1

“Mulder, slow down!” Dana shouted after his retreating back as her partner sprinted through the tunnel. She had to carefully avoid large pieces of debris, and her legs were less than superb at getting her places quickly. Mulder, however, could simply leap over the obstacles and keep his pace. She tried to keep up, but lost him after he made a turn at an intersection. 

-_-_-

They’d been tracking this “boogeyman” for two days, and traced it back, of course, to an abandoned missile silo in the middle of the damn desert because the universe is not only uncreative - it is often downright redundant. Upon reaching the building, they walked the full perimeter and searched every inch of the place, coming up with nothing.  Nonetheless, the strange continued to occur. 

They may not have found any nests, but they did find a massive heap of garbage: a wing from a WW1 era fighter, a broken high-heel, some brightly labeled empty hairspray cans, and tons of other junk ranging from collectible to concerning. The mountain of garbage seemed to be arranged with an entrance, as if to a self contained dump, which she supposed it sort of was.

As she slowly made her way through the “front gate,” Dana began to notice a path of sorts that branched off into different rooms, and how each of these rooms seemed to have a different theme. One was full of old bottles, with faded labels that gave some indication of their ages. Another was only microwaves, toasters, and other small kitchen appliances. Still another contained campaign buttons from presidents ranging from Reagan to McKinley.

“Mulder,” she called hesitantly, “you’d better come look at this.”

He eventually found her by way of the MarcoPolo technique. Together they combed through the strange un-building exploring every room with strange fascination. 

They were deep within the trash castle, when Mulder froze, listening. Dana followed suit, straining for any sign of whatever had caught his attention. A loud screech like that of nails on an aluminum chalkboard echoed ahead of them, and Mulder took off. 

“Shit.” 

-_-_-

“Mulder?” She stopped at the intersection to catch her breath. Scanning her surroundings, she noticed the thin layer of water that now swirled around the bottom of her shoes, Dana checked for any indication of which way he had gone. Down one tunnel, a faint, constant ripple disrupted the otherwise calm surface dotted with similar garbage as what was outside.

She followed this tunnel, taking each turn quicker and quicker until she was sprinting again. She continued to call his name, with no sound in reply but the splashing of her shoes in the slightly deepening water. The hall had since gone underground, connecting to long out-of-use, metal sewer pipes. As such, every sound was repeated clearly; every sound but the one she was hoping for.

After what seemed like hours of intermittent running and trudging, the water was almost at her waist and still climbing. At least it was cool out of the sun. As she waded around a corner, the floating depris seemed to increase in density. One more turn, and Dana was face to face with a massive pile of garbage. A ladder poked out of the heap, rusted and damaged in places, but there nonetheless. 

Salvation from the endless maze, at last. If she climbed out she could probably start over and go the other way in the intersection to find Mulder, even if it had been an hour, or two, or seven. Time was sort of hard to keep track of when you didn’t have a watch on you. She struggled up the junk pile and onto the ladder.

She was about halfway up when something plonked off her shoulder and onto the pile below. Jimmy Carter’s faded visage stared up at her from a green pin that glinted with sunlight. Sunlight?

Dana tilted her head back and stared into the clear, blue sky in what looked like an even bigger trash maze. She poked her head out of the newly formed hole, then pulled the rest of her body out after deeming it safe. 

She stood on the dirt, dusting off her skirt. When Dana turned to see what kind of orifice she had just climbed out of, she was greeted by two men in orange vests, who seemed absolutely dumbfounded by her appearance. Dana introduced them and asked where the missile silo was so she could find her partner and also what time was it? 

They gave her vague directions and told her that it had been 21 hours since she and Mulder arrived at the silo. She knew it had been a while but that didn’t seem quite right. Right now her priority was getting to Mulder, so that didn’t totally matter. 

One of the workers offered to drive her there since it was “so damn hot out.” She gratefully accepted. As they left, she tossed a glance over her shoulder in search of the manhole she had come from. Instead, smooth dirt and a few shoots of yellow grass lay where her exit had once been.


	2. Chapter 2

It took them only a few minutes to reach the silo, though she had walked for miles in the tunnels. After thanking her driver and exiting the vehicle, Dana made a beeline for the trash castle. When she gripped the handle of the door to open it, she found it locked. That’s was new. Why would they wait until she and Mulder had gone inside to lock the door and-

Her musings were interrupted by the door hitting her directly in the forehead. Stars skittered across her vision. She shook her head, and locked eyes with a startled man in a grey jumpsuit. He began to apologize profusely and introduced himself as private Louis Woods. She held up her badge and recited the old maxim. He nodded, furrowed his brow, and said,

“You’d better come inside. I’ve got someone who’ll probably want to speak to you.” She agreed and followed him into the building.

As soon as she stepped inside, a wave of cool air and sound rolled over her. People bustled about, clipboards in hand. Some chattered and pointed to the cargo, others simply inspected it. Dana was perplexed. She knew it had been almost a full day since she had been there, but there was no way they had managed to clear that entire garbage palace, sweep, bring in new missiles and staff, and reinstall the AC in that time. Something was Not Right.

-_-_-

She was led to a small conference room in the back of the building. They offered her coffee and asked her to wait for their supervisor who would be there in a minute. She paced, sipped from the paper cup, and tried to make sense of the last few hours.

After crawling from the sewer, she was miles and hours away from where she started, and Mulder was nowhere to be found. Had he gotten out? Was he looking for her too? Maybe he had come back and found what she had and gone back to the hotel to regroup. After she was done here, that would be her next move.

The supervisor was finally able to meet with her after a while. He was a tall, skinny man in his forties. A sweaty jumpsuit clung to his back and chest with a name card announcing him as “Greg Lennox Senior Supervisor.” His handshake was weak and moist, even in the air conditioned room.  Dana did the same song and dance to explain her presence, starting from her entrance into the tunnels. He listened and nodded occasionally as his expression slowly darkened. 

She finished and settled back against the long table, arms crossed, waiting for his assessment. He took a deep breath. 

“You claim you and your partner arrived here yesterday to find a ‘giant garbage maze’ connecting to some tunnels that opened up into a dump a few miles away and that you arrived here only an hour ago for the second time in 24 hours.” He raised an eyebrow. She sighed.

”I know it sounds crazy but I swear. I got here yesterday the 24th around 2 or three and now it’s noon the next day.” The supervisor looked distant for a moment, then summoned a mearby worker and grabbed his clipboard. He returned and showed it to Dana, indicating the date stamped at the top. It read, 

“05/12/83/“

She blinked but the number stayed. She ran her finger across it but it wouldn’t budge. 

“Are you sure this is right?”

He nodded solemnly. 


End file.
